Swedes ratchet up hunt for summer houses

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The number of Swedes looking for a second home in the countryside went up by 15 percent last year, with one municipality in particular seeing most of the property listings traffic online.

Swedish homes site Hemnet on Wednesday said that online visitors were increasingly rifling through the summer houses available to buy. The 15-percent increase in would-be buyers, however, comes at a time when the number of cottages or second homes for sale has gone down six percent in the past year.

A review of click habits revealed that 18 of the 100 most viewed second-home properties were found in Norrtälje, the municipality in Uppland county with quick access to Uppsala and Stockholm, as well as its own expansive archipelago.

"Mild weather and low interest rates may have contributed to the interest in second homes going up," Hemnet spokesman Staffan Tell told the TT news agency.

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The most expensive second home currently on the site is a private island outside Dalarö at an asking price of 39 million kronor ($6 million), while a cottage in the Luleå archipelago priced at 295,000 kronor ($46,000) is currently the cheapest.